THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE

In the previous chapter, what Malthus called the means of subsistence was defined indirectly as the capacity of an area to support a population. This indirect definition assumes firstly, that each individual has some requirement for what a land area can provide and secondly, that the aggregate pressure exerted by a population on the land area is the summation of these individual needs. The basic requirements of each individual are for food, shelter, clothing and fuel. One might also add to these a requirement for a social structure to govern the individual's relationship to the community of which he is a part. The above requirements are basic to existence. As societies advance, however, they demand things other than these absolute necessities – consumer goods in our own society are an example – and the question arises whether the minimal list of the needs for survival alone are sufficient in a modern world. In this respect Keynes in his Essays in Persuasion (1931) distinguished two classes of human need: ‘Those needs which are absolute in the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of our fellow human beings may be, and those which are relative only in that their satisfaction lifts us above, makes us superior to our fellows.’ Keynes' distinction obviously applies to a need to satisfy hunger on the one hand, and the desire to own a Rolls Royce on the other.